We’ve recently added a “backstory” feature to the Six-Word Memoir project (like a backstory that just came in about turning 50. At Falmouth High School in Falmouth, MA, Christopher Lippa’s students have had the backstory bug for months. “I had about 70 kids write six-word memoirs for this assignment,” the English teacher wrote in to SMITH. “What I did not expect was for each of the students to write such in depth one-page responses on how they came up with the memoirs.”

Lippa first heard about the Six-Word Memoir project on his local NPR station. “It sounded like a great way for young people to express themselves while creatively choosing the most effective diction to get his/her point across,” he says. “I broke the memoirs into categories and asked students to try and provoke their readers to laugh, cry, or feel some degree of extraordinary emotion by the words they choose. To my surprise, I found personal conflict and struggles within my students I may have never known otherwise. I plan on continuing to include the assignment in my curriculum for years to come.”

Lippa’s own six-word memoir is very meta and very sweet: “Will always believe in my students.”

Here’s what they came up with.

“One egg. Two girls. Best friends.”
- Bethany Donovan

“Forgot to check, we all jumped.”
- Lou Licciardi
“Travel the world, make a difference.”
- Sam Bombaugh